man. dont get me wrong but I think Freddy Jones is amazing. But how come Sam Mitchell never wants to play him? Last game he did play him, but only for like 5 minutes. What are your thoughts. peace
He sucks. He's not playing like himself. His taking really awful jump shots that always brick, and when he does do what we brought him in to do, he always turns the ball over whenever he drives. He's playing like wasted talent.
<div class="quote_poster">rafy Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">He sucks. He's not playing like himself. His taking really awful jump shots that always brick, and when he does do what we brought him in to do, he always turns the ball over whenever he drives. He's playing like wasted talent.</div> Sucks? Ok sure Jones is taking alot of shots, but the last few games, he is starting to drive. He is also a but less confidinte becuase going from starting to 5 max minutes a game is hard. Mo Pete is playing less but well slowley he will get worked in but he is getting back to what he is supposed to do. So dont hate Jones, he just going through a tough spot right now, and will get better.
He has been driving a lot lately, I hope he can turn things around because I had high expectations of him.
I think its a matter of not enough room in the rotation. When Healthy the Raptors role with Bosh, Rasho, Garbo, Parker, Ford and their bench is Bargnani, Calderon, Graham & MO-Pete. Thats a 9 man rotation its hard to find a team in the NBA who plays 10 players consistently and right now Fred Jones is our tenth best player, hence the limited minutes.
The confidence issue is overplayed. It only harms a persons performance so much, but Jones is not doing what we brought him in to do. We have a lot of depth, so each bench player needs to concentrate on doing whatever role they're assigned. Jones was meant to be a penetrator, who could share in point guard duties while on the floor with another PG. Unfortunately, he started the season thinking he was Larry Bird and jacked up flat jumper after flat jumper. He was a liability as a starter and hasn't proven that he deserves any more time than he's getting. The baffling thing is that he was playing exactly how he should be during the pre-season, but took a complete 180 for some reason. As of now, he's been a bust.
When Joey Graham's playing as well as he has and Mo Pete has been coming off the bench, there really is no spot in the rotation for Jones. He's had his chance, and with everyone healthy and in great form, Jones is surplus. That said though, he is on a four year contract and the talent won't disappear overnight. I still think he can be a valuable player, just not right now.
I wouldn't normally place the blame so steadily on Mitchell for an individuals performance but in this case i definately will. Jones started off the season great and actually looked like a threat to be a starter on this team. Problem being that he started to score in ways he normally doesn't and then fell in love with the 3 point shoot etc... What does Sam Mitchell do to correct this? He tells Jones to work on his shot and eventually they'll go in !!!! Absolutely brutal since we all knew coming in that Jones is a guy who takes the ball to the basket hard and that's what he's here to do. Jones followed Mitchell's instructions pretty well after that and shot his way right out of the lineup. Mitchell is an idiot for thinking this guy is going to contribute in the form he asked him to. What we should have asked of Jones is to move within the offense and only take 3 outside shots a game or so. Primarily he should be taking it to the basket. Our expectations of Fred Jones were probably too high (especially considering his early performance) but he's being under utilized the same way Mopete was before. The 2-3 spot on this team is too jammed to get him minutes unfortunately.
He should be playing 1-2. If he had stuck with his strengths, he'd be Jose Calderon's primary backup right now. I completely agree though a13x, it might be too little too late for Jones this season.
